


Hard to Forgive You

by The-Winter-Maximoff (kindersuprisefics)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Get it?, I could've thought it through a little more, Lots of Angst, Zemo and T'challa have a lot to work out, honestly I don't really know how to describe this, in advance I'm terribly sorry it's not so good, j-just kidding then, no?, they pry would if Zemo would stop being a little shit but he's got his own problems too, they'll "Progress" through it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:36:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7097125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindersuprisefics/pseuds/The-Winter-Maximoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>T'challa's trying so hard to forgive him, but Zemo doesn't make it easy. </p><p>Zemo doesn't want forgiveness. He knows he doesn't deserve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hard to Forgive You

Weeks have gone by since he was brought here.  
Nothing has changed at all. He wakes up, if he slept at all that is, he sits in his cell for a few hours, someone brings him food, and then a few hours after that he's brought upstairs for their “daily” therapeutic session.  
Then it's all wash rinse repeat with the routine. 

Zemo didn't sleep the night before. He couldn't bring himself to. Every second he closed his eyes he sees that damned face in his head. 

T’challa with his calm demeanor and his reassuring smiles and his looks of concern. Just thinking about it pissed Zemo off. He clenches his fists and sits up in frustration, feeling the urge to scream. 

It was just so unbearable that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't break the man’s patience. It was like he was a robot, it wasn't normal and Zemo wanted to see him crumble. 

They sit at the table across from each other, T’challa is going on, once again, about his day. This small talk wasn't making anything easier. Zemo just didn't understand how the other man didn't get how discomforting and unwanted these conversations were. He didn't care about them. 

“Are you still not ready to talk yet?” 

Zemo snaps out of his thoughts to find the Wakandan King looking at him intently with those waiting eyes. He squirms uncomfortably under the gaze and looks away from him. 

“There's nothing to say.” 

“That isn't true, you've made progress recently, we could talk about that.” 

Zemo rolls his eyes, looking down at his uncuffed wrists. 

“What? You mean me not being chained up like a prisoner anymore?” 

T’challa shakes his head as he replied, “You're much less hostile then when you first arrived here. That is good, it means you are getting better…..albeit slowly.” 

Zemo looks at him with a blank look, not even sure it would be possible to omit the amount of annoyance he felt right now. Not only did he ignore him but now he was also calling him soft? 

“What makes you think I'm not just waiting to kill you?” 

“Because you know it would be pointless to kill a King on his own land.” 

 

T'challa was smart, Zemo couldn't deny that. He was perceptive and capable of detecting even the smallest details in a persons behavior. The perfect person for making Zemo's life a living hell. 

 

For T'challa this was beyond strenuous. Dealing with Zemo wasn't easy, and keeping his patience was even worse. This man was just too stubborn, everything T'challa tried he would find some way to retaliate against him. Certainly he was happy with the fact that the Sokovian no longer posed a threat to himself but he still wasn't any where near agreeable as company. 

He tries to be polite and inviting, he doesn't even push Zemo too much to talk to him. Instead he try's just talking to him as a way to get him to open up, but even then Zemo just acts bored and annoyed that he has to be there. 

Spending time with Zemo was like holding a cat that didn't want you near them, pushing and squirming to get you to let go. 

Even Zemo's pouty face was a little cat like. 

T'challa doesn't know why he thought of that. He doesn't think about again. 

He looks at Zemo to see the man staring intently at his plate of untouched food. 

That was another problem. He wasn't eating much. Every day T'challa could notice the man getting thinner and unhealthy. It was bad enough he was still having trouble sleeping. 

He looked so frail, his skin was sickly pale, and his eyes had dark bags under them, and now he was thinning out. 

“You need to eat more. You'll get sick if you keep this up.” 

“I'm not hungry.” 

“Did you want something else?” 

Zemo looks up again to glare at him, T'challa’s own expression doesn't change.  
“What does it matter if I get sick, you'll just end up taking care of me won't you?!” He asks him bitterly. 

T'challa was about to say something but Zemo cuts him off, continuing on with his anger. 

“Why don't you just force me to eat? Huh? Can't you do that? Get your guards to hold me down and shove a fucking tube down my throat?!” 

“I wouldn't do that to you….but I don't want you to die from starvation either.” 

Zemo stands up suddenly, T'challa bracing himself should the man attack. 

“Its not your choice if I live or not! I want to die! I should've died a long time ago! Back in Siberia!” 

“The living are not done with you yet.” 

Those words echo through Zemo's brain and suddenly he just snaps, violently knocking a glass cup off of the table. 

They both watched it fall as if in slow motion. The realization hitting Zemo as the sound of shattering glass hit his ear. 

T'challa looked from the cup then back up to Zemo, watching the man freeze in place with an unreadable expression. It wasn't fear, but it wasn't satisfaction or amusement either. 

He looked like a deer in headlights. 

 

T'challa gets up from the table, and immediately Zemo jumps away and takes a defensive stance. He was expecting T'challa to hurt him.

“I'll get someone to clean that,” he sighs,  
putting his hands gently on Zemo's shoulders, the man looks at him in disbelief, “Come, I think you could use some fresh air.” 

‘He's not…..mad.’ Zemo thought as he was lead out of the room. 

This realization stayed with him all day. 

 

Zemo's learned a new way to vent out his anger and frustration. 

T'challa doesn’t know how to react to it at first, but after two days of Zemo deliberately breaking things, he needed to make him stop. 

“He should be locked in a cell for this kind of behavior.” His guard and advisor told him one day. 

Zemo just randomly began knocking things over during one of their sessions, braking a few fragile and very expensive decorations. 

Guards that were in the area at the time grabbed him and dragged him off to his room. T'challa hadn't even had time to process it, he was too fixed on the look on Zemo's face. 

 

T'challa sighs and looks uncertainly at her, “He won't learn from being simply locked up….he won't heal without proper attentiveness and that's what he wants,” he rests his head in his hands tiredly, “I can't give up on him, not now that I've already taken responsibility.” 

“He's not a child, your highness. Even if he acts like one. He's a criminal.” 

He looks at her understandingly, nodding with another heavy sigh, “He is. The worst kind of criminal….but my father would not want me to hate him, he would want me to forgive him,” he looks down at his fathers ring, strong emotions building up inside of him. He will become the man his father would want him to be. 

“Hate will only lead to my downfall as a king…..if I can be strong enough to show kindness and help the man who murdered my father, then I know I'll be strong enough to rule this kingdom as my father did.” 

She nods, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Your father would be proud of you, King T'challa.” 

 

Zemo doesn't understand these feelings. He wants to scream so loudly until everything just disappears. 

‘Why can't he make me hate him?!’ 

He was in utter despair at the conflicting thoughts. 

At one point he hated T'challa with every fiber of his being. He hated him for taking away his chance at peace. He hated him for making him a prisoner to his own benefit. 

But now, he hated him for the way he made him feel. 

Zemo hated T'challa now because he made him feel guilty. He hated him for the way his chest ached inside from knowing that he caused the same pain he was suffering from onto someone else. 

Zemo hated T'challa for being so kind and patient and concerned when he knew damned well that he didn't deserve that from him. 

Now he's so confused with what he wanted anymore. 

 

The next day is shockingly different. Zemo is surprised to find that no one comes for him at the expected time. 

Zemo hates it but to his disturbance he feels a growing anxiety. It's like a small balloon slowly filling with air, ready to pop inside of him the second it became too unbearable. 

Hours feel like years as he waits. 

‘I did it. This is it. He's finally leaving me to die.’ 

Zemo expects peace from this but as confusing at it was to him he had the urge to scream and kick the walls. 

‘What do I want?’

‘I can't stand this anymore’ 

‘Please let me die.’ 

 

T'challa looks at the clock as he sits down after a long and yet surprisingly relaxing day. He hadn't once even thought of Zemo.  
Maybe using a whole day for himself and tending to his duties was a good idea after all. 

Yet something bothered him. Like a small force pulling at him. 

A knock at the door suddenly jolts him from his thoughts and then one of his assistants come into the room, carrying a tray of food. 

“Your dinner your highness.” 

“Yes, thank you.” 

He regrets asking the minute he says it. 

“Has anyone checked on him lately?” 

She nods, a distressed look on her face that makes T'challa tense. 

“He hasn't eaten all day. He refused to leave his cell and he's been on the floor all day.” 

T'challa nods, his expression is calm but anyone could see the restlessness in his eyes. 

 

Zemo opens his eyes. The sun from the window shining on his face, the warmth was so comforting he was almost tempted to go back to sleep. 

“Good morning my love.” 

Her soft hand rests on his cheek and Zemo feels his heart swell with happiness as he leaned into it. 

“I miss you.” 

“Then why didn't you save us, Helmut?” 

Suddenly warmth turns into a sharp coldness, jolting him up as suddenly the room turns to ruins. 

He turns to where his wife once lay beside him and he screams upon seeing the corpses of his dead family laying there. 

“No….no not this please!” He covers his eyes with his hands and backs away in fear. 

“You're a monster” 

“All you do is bring pain and death” 

Everything's flashing before him. 

Sokovia under attack. 

Debris falling from the sky. 

Death everywhere. 

He can hear the screams ringing through his ears. 

But then it changes. 

There's body's all around his feet, completely surrounded by a cold white world. 

“You're broken, no one will ever love someone as disgusting as you.” 

Zemo looks around in panic and then he sees him. T'challa sitting on his knees in front of his fathers corpse. For a split second he sees himself in front of his family. 

“You're just as much of a monster as they are.” 

Hypocrite.

Murderer. 

There's a loud noise that makes his ears ring and he realizes that he's screaming.

“Wake up.”

“You need to wake up!” 

 

He opens his eyes to see T'challa above him. His vision is blurry and his hands are met with something wet as he rubs his eyes. As he focuses he can see the searching expression on T'challa's face. 

“why are you here?” 

“You were screaming.” 

 

Zemo feels a lump in his throat and he desperately swallows it back and glares at T'challa. 

“Why do you do this?” 

T'challa looks at him confused. 

“I can't stand this constant kindness and patience! How could you act that way towards some one who's wronged you?!” He snaps, backing himself away from T'challa, “just give up on me!” 

This time T'challa frowns back at him, he looks completely done now and Zemo slightly feels his heart drop.

“Do you know how hard it's been for me to forgive you?!” 

Zemo silently stares at him, he didn't really know how to react as T'challa grabbed him by his shirt collar. 

“I've been doing everything I could think of to some how possibly help you but all you do is fight me! Why?! Wasn't killing my father enough for you?!” 

Zemo wants to say something but T'challa pushes him back against the wall harshly, making him gasp at the sudden new reaction from the Wakandan King. 

“If I let my hate for you continue…I’ll just end up like you….I can't become that now that I'm a king….now that I'm the black panther.” T'challa's voice is grows soft, and then there's nothing but silence. 

Their eyes meet, locking onto each other and time stops around them. For a moment there was peace, and their anger was replaced with something foreign and hard to understand. It was a feeling they weren't used to around each other. 

Understanding. 

 

T'challa takes a second to notice how Zemo looked in this moment. 

And Zemo blinks as he notices the warmth emitting from how close T'challa was.

 

 

They don't see each other again for weeks.


End file.
